Age of Empires IV has received an Anniversary Edition update, coming to Xbox next year

Age of Empires IV has received a major free update – Anniversary Edition. Moreover, it is dedicated not only to the anniversary of the release of the fourth part, but also to a much larger anniversary – this month the Age of Empires franchise celebrates its 25th anniversary.

The Anniversary Update adds two new civilizations to the game – the Ottomans and the Malians, eight new maps and two new biomes, new achievements, balance changes, and the usual stability and performance improvements. Also, together with the Anniversary Update, the third season will start along with all the relevant content.

Additionally, Microsoft announced the series is coming soon to Xbox. Yes, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition should be released on consoles on January 31, 2023, Age of Empires IV — “a little later that year.”

Control in the games will be optimized for playing with a controller (at the same time, the option of playing with a keyboard and mouse will also remain), they will receive a new tutorial specifically for gamepads and a new AI to simplify resource management.

The developer promises crossplay between the Xbox and PC versions, the appearance of games in the Xbox Cloud Gaming cloud service and Xbox Game Pass.